Improved posture with Tai Chi Plus.

Improving your posture is highly advantageous for many reasons and the benefits are long term, they are for the rest of your life!
With improved posture you will breath more efficiently and have better concentration. Digestion is also helped by having good correct natural posture. We read far more than we realise about people by there body language, how you carry yourself says a lot about you to the rest of the world. The more comfortable that we are with ourselves then the more comfortable others are being around us. A big part of being comfortable with yourself on a physical level is having a natural relaxed and therefore comfortable posture.

So what are the causes of poor posture?

The obvious culprits of poor posture are the endless hours that many people spend slumped in front of a screen or griping the wheel of the car fighting through the rush hour. Periods of sitting should be balanced by regular stretching, how many of us do this? Although standing for long periods can be better for you than sitting down this is only true if you are standing correctly as many a shop worker knows! If you are well above average height when you are talking to most people you will be looking downwards which can cause another set of problems.
The not so obvious culprits of poor posture are the cultural images that we emulated when we were young. At an impressionable age we mimic our heroes, often unaware that we are doing so, we even adopt their style of walking and standing along with their way of dressing. In our man made artificial world we have moved along way from what is natural and this is reflected in artificial and unnatural ways of holding ourselves. An extreme example of this are high heel shoes, when they are in fashion women will risk deformities in their feet to project a taller and more curvy shape! Once these artificial ways of, for instance standing, become ingrained in the muscle memory they feel natural and when people are shown a more natural way of standing it feels uncomfortable and artificial, at least at first.

Better concentration.

By improving your posture you will automatically improve your breathing and your concentration. By habitually adopting a more natural position you will be giving your lungs the room to work to their full capacity. By increasing the oxygen that is entering the body and reaching your brain you will improve your concentration as well as your all round health.

Less tired and more relaxed

When our posture is poor we have to use muscles that we should not be using to compensate for poor body alignment, this causes fatigue. The more that our body structure is balanced and self supporting the less effort it takes physically to say, stand in a queue at the airport for twenty minutes or more! When you see this in terms of many many years, in fact the rest of your life, good posture is a good investment and a big energy saver!

Less wear and tear on the joints

It’s not just fuel for your car that’s gone up in price recently, have you noticed the increase in the cost of tires? We drivers know that by keeping balanced tires at the right air pressure both the fuel and the tires last longer.In a similar way to car tyres if through good body alignment our weight bearing joints have the weight load that they take evenly and correctly distributed they too will last for longer.

Old age and posture.

Our posture does not get worse when we get old, it’s just that as we no longer have the muscular strength to compensate for any faults in our body alignment, the bad habits of a lifetime start to show more. In China were millions of people practice exercises that are good for their posture daily a person that you assume to be not old can be walking in front of you but if they turn around you can see that they are actually very old, their posture can be like that of someone many decades younger.

What your posture is saying to others

I remember knowing some body builders that worked as bouncers. These lads looked really strong and they were actually even stronger than they looked, it was nothing to them to sling a trouble maker out of the club as if they were a rag doll. For all the muscular strength that these bouncers had during all the long hours that they were payed to stand at the door they couldn’t keep still for more than two minutes, hand on the wall then back on the wall turn to shoulder on the wall, it was uncomfortable just to watch!
There is just that something about someone who carries them self well is ant there? It goes beyond the outer trappings of clothes or even age and is hard to describe but you know it when you see it. Good posture equals physical balance and a relaxed but poised manner, beauty and physical strength are fleeting but your never too old to be elegant and graceful. Along with good manners and having tact good posture costs nothing and is worth so much.

With Tai Chi Plus you will be working on improving your posture right from day one. The best way to improve your posture is by what is called in tai chi, stance testing. This involves the instructor showing you where your posture is weak in any move, correcting it and then showing you how much more stable your structure is when in the correct position. The tai chi form is excellent for improving your posture and the stretching exercises unlock the tension that you are holding making it easier to get good body alignment. It’s good to make long term investments and the best investments are in yourself. Having good posture is at the core of good health and vitality, it is a discipline worth having.